Rivers and River Transport 121 



" Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and 

 Railways of Great Britain " (1831), it has been thought that 

 previous to the Norman Conquest the river was a tideway 

 navigation for ships to Lincoln. That it was navigable at a 

 very early period he thinks may be inferred from the fact that 

 the Fossdike Canal, " an ancient ' Roman Work,' " was 

 scoured out by Henry I. in the year 1121 for the purpose of 

 opening a navigable communication between the Trent and 

 the Witham at the city of Lincoln in order that that place, 

 which was then in a very nourishing condition and enjoying 

 an extensive foreign trade, might reap all the advantages 

 of a more ready communication with the interior. 



Another most important group of rivers, from the point of 

 view of inland navigation, was the series which have their 

 outlet in the Humber. This group includes the Yorkshire 

 Ouse and the Trent, both naturally navigable. 



The Ouse (York) is formed by the confluence of the Ure 

 and the Swale sixty miles above the Trent Falls, where, 

 after passing through York, Selby, and Goole, it joins the 

 Trent and forms the Humber estuary. Under a charter 

 granted by Edward IV., in the year 1462, the Lord Mayor 

 and Aldermen of York were to " oversee and be conservators " 

 of this river, as well as of the Aire, the Wharfe, the Derwent, 

 the Don, and the Humber, all of which are connected with it. 

 Of the city of York, as he found it in or about the year 1723, 

 Defoe says : 



" No City in England is better furnished with Provision of 

 every Kind, nor any so cheap, in proportion to the goodness 

 of Things ; the River being so navigable and so near the Sea, 

 the Merchants here trade directly to what port of the world 

 they will ; for Ships of any Burthen come up within thirty 

 Mile of the City, and small Craft from sixty or eighty Ton, 

 and under, come up to the very City." 



The navigable Trent was for many centuries the chief means 

 of communication between south and north, and Nottingham, 

 as the capital of the Trent district, became a place of great 

 importance. It was along the Trent that the King's mes- 

 sengers passed on their way to York, in preference to braving 

 the dangers of the road through Sherwood Forest. The 

 burgesses of Nottingham were required to take charge of them 

 as soon as they came to the river and conduct them safely to 



